Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital

The digital part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital will support and catalyse both public and private investments in digital connectivity infrastructures between 2021 and 2027.

Making Europe more digital is one of the key challenges for our generation. The increase of online interactions and the emergence of new ways of living, working and doing business, has shown the central role that digital technologies play in our economy and society. In turn, digital technologies require appropriate digital connectivity infrastructures in order to function.

Together with other funding instruments, including the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the InvestEU, CEF Digital will help support an unprecedented amount of investments devoted to safe, secure, and sustainable high-performance infrastructure. In particular, Gigabit and 5G networks across the EU.

The main actions foreseen under CEF Digital include:

• Deploying very high-capacity networks, including 5G systems, in areas where socioeconomic drivers are located;
• Guaranteeing uninterrupted coverage with 5G systems of all major transport paths, including the trans-European transport networks;
• Deploying new or a significant upgrade of existing backbone networks, including submarine cables, within and between Member States and between the Union and third countries;
• Implementing and supporting digital connectivity infrastructure related to cross-border projects in the areas of transport or energy.

General funding information

Total budget: €1.6 Billion Total Funding 2021-2027

Funding rate: fixed co-funding rate is 30% under the general envelope and 50% under the cohesion envelope.

Participating Countries:  Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom and Ukraine

Scope: aims to support and catalyse investments in digital connectivity infrastructures of common interest.